Comedy

means a village-song (Greek, Kome-ode), referring to
the village merry-makings, in which comic songs still take a
conspicuous place. The Greeks had certain festal processions of great
licentiousness, held in honour of Dionysos, in the suburbs of their
cities, and termed komoi or village-revels. On these occasions
an ode was generally sung, and this ode was the foundation of Greek
comedy. (See Tragedy.)